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Lucille Bogan
| birth_place = Amory, Mississippi, United States | death_date = August | death_place = Los Angeles, California, United States | Instrument = vocals | Genre = Delta blues, country blues | Occupation = singer. lyricist | Years_active = 1923–1935 | URL = | Notable_instruments = }} Lucille Anderson Bogan (April 1, 1897 - August 10, 1948) was an American blues singer, among the earliest to be recorded. She was "known for her explicit lyrics, which covered topics such as sex, prostitution and alcoholism.""Notes on Life and Works," Selected Poetry of Lucille Bogan (1897-1948), Web, Nov. 13, 2011. Life Bogan was born in Amory, Mississippi, and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. At the age of 5 she was named Lucille Anderson. In 1916 she married Nazareth Lee Bogan, a railwayman, and gave birth to a son. She began her career recording vaudeville songs for Okeh Records in New York in 1923, with pianist Henry Callens. Later that year she recorded "Pawn Shop Blues" in Atlanta, which was the 1st time a black blues singer had been recorded outside New York or Chicago.Nigel Williamson, The Rough Guide to The Blues, 2007, ISBN 1-84353-519-X In 1927 she began recording for Paramount Records in Grafton, WisconsinParamount Records, Wikipedia., where she recorded her earliest big success, "Sweet Petunia", which was covered by Blind Blake. She also recorded for Brunswick Records, backed by Tampa Red and Cow Cow Davenport. By 1930 her recordings had begun to concentrate on drinking and sex, with songs such as "Sloppy Drunk Blues" (covered by Leroy Carr and others) and "Tricks Ain't Walkin' No More" (later recorded by Memphis Minnie). She also recorded the original version of "Black Angel Blues", which (as "Sweet Little Angel") was covered by B.B. King and many others. Trained in the rowdier juke joints of the 1920s, many of Bogan's songs, most of which she wrote herself, have thinly-veiled humorous sexual references. The theme of prostitution, in particular, featured prominently in several of her recordings. In 1933 she returned to New York, and, apparently to conceal her identity, began recording as "Bessie Jackson" for the Banner (ARC) label. She was usually accompanied on piano by Walter Roland, with whom she recorded over 100 songs between 1933 and 1935, including some of her biggest commercial successes including "Seaboard Blues", "Troubled Mind", and "Superstitious Blues". Her other songs included "Stew Meat Blues", "Coffee Grindin' Blues", "My Georgia Grind", "Honeycomb Man", "Mr. Screw Worm In Trouble", and "Bo Hog Blues". Her final recordings with Roland and Josh White included 2 takes of "Shave 'Em Dry", recorded in New York on Tuesday March 5, 1935. The unexpurgated alternate take is notorious for its explicit sexual references, a unique record of the lyrics sung in after-hours adult clubs. Another of her songs, "B.D. Woman's Blues", takes the position of a "bull dyke" ("B.D."), with the line "Comin' a time, B.D. women, they ain't gonna need no men" "They got a head like a sweet angel and they walk just like a natural man." "They can lay their jive just like a natural man." She appears not to have recorded after 1935, and spent some time managing her son's jazz group, Bogan's Birmingham Busters, before moving to Los Angeles shortly before her death from coronary sclerosis in 1948. She is buried at Lincoln Memorial Park, Compton, Los Angeles co., California.Lucille Anderson Bogan," FindAGrave.com, Web, Nov. 13, 2011. See also *List of English-language songwriters References External links ;Lyrics * Bogan, Lucille (1897-1948) (4 lyrics) at Representative Poetry Online ;About *Lucille Bogan biography *Lucille Bogan music catalog at Red Hot Jazz * Category:1897 births Category:1948 deaths Category:Classic female blues singers Category:African American female singers Category:American blues singers Category:American female singers Category:Dirty blues musicians Category:Bisexual musicians Category:LGBT African Americans Category:LGBT musicians from the United States Category:Musicians from Mississippi Category:Okeh Records artists Category:People from Monroe County, Mississippi Category:American songwriters Category:Songwriters